Washington D.C. [USA]: In a detailed research, scientists have determined that a child pedestrian’s ability to safely cross the road is hindered more during a cell phone conversation than an adult’s.

Professor Tal Oron-Gilad, who led the study, explained “Although many children carry cell phones, the effect that cell phone conversations have on children’s crossing behaviour has not been thoroughly examined.”

“Over a third of the road traffic deaths in low- and middle-income countries are among pedestrians. This high level of involvement is particularly meaningful for child pedestrians as the proportion of child pedestrian fatalities is significantly high relative to adults,” she adds.

The study was conducted at one of the world’s most sophisticated traffic research facilities, which enabled researchers to measure pedestrian reactions to virtual reality scenarios.

The pedestrian dome simulator consists of a 180-degree spherical screen aligned with a highly accurate three-projector system large enough to immerse a participant within its circumference.

The simulator experiment was conducted in a virtual city environment with 14 adults and 38 children who experienced road crossing scenarios paired with pre-determined cell phone conversations.

The subjects were requested to press a response button whenever they felt it was safe to cross while the researchers tracked their eye movements.

“The results showed that while all age groups’ crossing behaviors were affected by cell phone conversations, children were more susceptible to distraction,” said Oron-Gilad.

“When busy with more cognitively demanding conversation types, participants were slower to react to a crossing opportunity, chose smaller crossing gaps and allocated less visual attention to the peripheral regions of the scene,” she added.

The ability to make better crossing decisions improved with age. The most prominent improvement was shown in the “safety gap”, each age group maintained a longer gap than the younger one preceding it.

“It is important to take those findings in account when aiming to train young pedestrians for road safety and increase public awareness with children going back to school,” said Oron-Gilad.

The study will be published in the Safety Science (Elsevier) journal. (ANI)